Ups and downs screenplay


Ups and downs

Screenplay by
Taylor Williams


Lift doors open and on the inside is Amelia standing on the right looking around, holding her bag. Eli walks into the lift from behind the camera and awkwardly nods to Amelia and pushes the button for a few floors up. The lift doors close and they continue looking around silently as the lift goes up.

The lift starts to make suspicious noises, it jolts, and the lights flicker until the lift comes to an abrupt stop.


Eli
What the hell was that?

Amelia
I don’t know but we need to stay calm, I think we may be stuck.

Eli
Fuck staying calm I’m late for a meeting.

Eli then walks over to the door and kicks it with frustration.

Amelia
That’s obviously not going to help is it?

Eli walks back to the place he was in before and looks around again looking stressed.
Eli
Just be quiet I need to think.

Eli begins to pace around his side of the lift and starts to hyperventilate and panic.
Eli
 (Panicked and pacing) We’re never going to get out of here are we? We’re stuck.

Eli then huffs in annoyance and slides down the elevator wall and sits down with his head in his hands.

Amelia kneels down beside him and touches his shoulder gently.

Amelia
Calm down alright, we’re not stuck we’re going to get out of here. Okay?

Eli looks up at Amelia with a relieved look on his face.

Eli
Alright, I’m sorry for shouting at you I know you were just trying to help.

Amelia
It’s alright I understand. This isn’t an ideal situation to be in.

Amelia then sits down next to Eli, crossing her legs and putting her bag on top of them.

Amelia
So I’ve known you for all of 5 minutes and I don’t even know your name yet. You look like a Laurence or a Nathan.

Eli
(Laughs anxiously) Actually my name is Eli. You look like an Amelia or an Emily.

Amelia looks at him in amazement and extends her hand to go and shake his.
Amelia
Wow that’s exactly right haha, how did you know that?

Eli
I don’t know you just look like an Amelia

Amelia
Oh fair enough (laughs) and by the way that’s a really nice name; I knew someone called Eli in a past life.

Eli looks at her with an angry yet disheartened look on his face.

Eli
So Amelia, we’re probably going to die in here. Have any regrets?

Amelia
(Chuckles nervously) Don’t say that we’ll be fine.

Eli
Seriously though, have any regrets?

Amelia
Only one. I let someone go many years ago and there hasn’t been a day where I’ve not thought about them.

Amelia looks down at her lap as she tries to stop tears from falling from her eyes.

Eli
Have you ever thought about finding them? You know they may have appreciated knowing that someone wanted them.

Amelia
Everyday but it’s… not one of those… you know… what I’m trying to say is that it’s complicated.

Eli
How is it complicated? If you loved them then you would do anything to find them again.

Amelia looks over at Eli with an annoyed expression on her face.

Amelia
It’s not that I didn’t love them, the situation was hard.

Eli looks straight at Amelia, looking into her eyes and making her feel uncomfortable. Rage washes over him as he clenches his fists.
The lift lights flicker on as it starts to move again, the two look around.
Eli
If you loved them so much you wouldn’t have let them go.

Eli progressively gets more annoyed and angry at Amelia as the conversation continues.

Amelia
It was a different time back then, I was young, I had no choice.

Eli punches the side of the lift in frustration; he stands up and turns his back to her.
The lift door opens and Eli looks forward towards the door.

Eli
(Shouting in annoyance) Of course you had a choice, and you chose to let them go. How do you think that was supposed to make me feel?

Eli walks out of the lift leaving Amelia behind, Amelia looks confused at what Eli just said.

Amelia
Eli?

The lift door closes and the screen fades to black.


END.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stutterer

How does Cleary make the audience sympathetic to the stutterer? Stutterer is a 2015 Oscar award-winning short film about a lonely typographer, who has a speech impediment and therefore finds it difficult to communicate. The opening shot is a close-up on the characters mouth whilst he is making a phone class to discuss a billing issue, however, due to his stutter he is cut off by the woman on the other end and is left with the dial tone ringing in his ear as he internally goes over what the conversation should have sounded like. Cleary uses the 4 areas of moving image analysis to make the viewer feel sympathy for Greenwood as he lives his life struggling to talk. Mise-en-scene Throughout the whole film, Cleary uses mise-en-scene to allow the viewer to understand a bit more about his life and the things he goes through on a daily basis. The first shot we see is a close-up on Greenwood's mouth as he is on the phone, the shot only shows his mouth and his chin, which emphasises
Read more

Wasp

Image
Narrative theory- Wasp In Wasp, the narrative theory that fits in with the short film the most is the 'Three-act structure'. The first act consists of an exposition, which is used to establish the main characters, their relationships and the world in which the film is set. In the case of Wasp, the film begins in media res  where we get introduced to Zoe and her children as she is having a fight with another woman. This shows the audience the kind of place she lives in and how her children are brought up in a low-income area in London. Later in the act, the protagonist is presented with an inciting incident, which is a problem that disrupts the equilibrium and leads into the second act, signaling the end of the first. In Wasp, this is when Zoe meets Dave and he invites her out for a drink, the problem she faces is that there would be no one to look after her children and therefore she will have to either decline his offer or take the children out with her.  The second a
Read more

Narrative Theory

Image
Narrative Theory in Titanic There are 3 main theories that are used to create a good script for a film, these are: Todorov's cyclical Theory of Equilibrium, Levi-Strauss' Theory which is based on binary opposites and Vladmir Propp's 7 archetypes of film. Todorov's cyclical Theory of Equilibrium was created in 1969 and he believed that it could be applied to any film as he believed that they all followed the same narrative pattern. They all go through stages called, equilibrium, disequilibrium, acknowledgement, resolving the problem, and equilibrium again. In the case of the film Titanic this would be applied when Leonardo DiCaprio's character Jack wins a place on the luxurious vessel by winning a poker game. During his stay aboard the titanic he comes to meet Rose (Kate Winslet). Rose is unhappily engaged to a man called Cal when she considers suicide by jumping from the stern of the ship when Jack intervenes and stops her. They go through a state of equilibr
Read more